


Beyond Belief

by Laur_Alex



Category: Darkiplier - Fandom, markiplier - Fandom, youtube - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Horror&gore in later chapters, Swearing, mature language, multi-chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-26 15:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2657042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laur_Alex/pseuds/Laur_Alex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SparklePlier is a poor excuse for a Frost Fairy; he can't stay hidden to save his life. DarklePlier, his twin brother, is a sadistic and twisted Dark Fairy who has seized control of the wretched Fairy Dungeons and plans to bring his brother home for a Reunion-meets-Slaughter. If only the human woman, Audrey, that SparklePlier befriended hadn't gotten into the mix. DarklePlier loves <i>playing</i> with humans, and there is always room for one more in the Dungeons...</p><p>This just got a lot more <b>fun</b>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. So It Begins

Legend tells of a particular kind of fairy; ones responsible for the frost that covers all things outside when it is cold. These beings traverse hither and yon, lightly laying webs of sparkling frost so beautiful they last only a night and disappear before the harsh glare of the light of day. These beings are never, ever seen.

Except for one.

This particular frost fairy, while he tried _so hard_ to not to be seen by the citizens inhabiting the human world, had yet to spend one night laying a frost cover without being seen by something. Various animals frightened him, coming upon him unexpectedly - dogs, cats, rabbits, squirrels, birds, the occasional rat or possum. Frequent cries of his include, “NoooNooooNoooo! _NOOOOOOOO!_ **NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!** ”, “No! _No!_ **No!** ”, and many other variations therein.

The fairy’s name is SparklePlier.

On this particular night, SparklePlier was gingerly applying a delicate frost cover to the window of a house. He had evaded the dog that had been let out into the backyard, cowering behind an air conditioning unit, peering out every few seconds until he was sure it was gone.

His attention returned to the task at hand. “Like a  _shadow_ , in the  _night_ ,” he pep talked himself. He _had_  to remain unseen; pretty soon he’d have his frost powers rescinded and he would be downgraded to…

…he could barely stand to  _think_  it… 

… _he would have to watch over children as they slept_.  

Terrible Tiny Two-Year-Olds, were his alliterative nickname for these sticky, screaming and in many cases smelly, balls of terror. He had no problem with infants; sweet smelling (well, most of the time,) adorable, Bitty-Bitty-Babies, as he called them. They just lay in their cribs, cooing and sleeping sweetly for much of the night, (well, most of the time).

But Terrible Tiny Two-Year-Olds? They chased you around, pulled at your wings. You were shoved in drawers, tied up, force fed whatever they deemed food at the time. They were up so much of the night, you couldn't grab a nap (not that you were supposed to...but still...).

It wouldn’t matter if he was seen then, no one believed children when they said a small creature was hanging out in their room, watching them sleep. Parents brushed this off as monsters, nightmares, too much sugar, too much television. There was always an excuse that was never the right answer. For fairies that couldn't remain stealthy in their given task, a task that did not require stealth was the last resort.

And it was _lame as hell_.

SparklePlier knew he could spend one night without being seen. He _knew_  it.

He was three quarters of the way done frosting the window. “You didn’t see a _damn_  thing,” he muttered to the humans and animals he believed he was currently evading. Sadly for SparklePlier, he was concentrating _so hard_ on not being seen, that he was of course seen. He didn’t notice that the dog had been let out into the backyard again. The dog made his way up to SparklePlier, barking excitedly.

“ _Euuuuuughn_!!!” the fairy squealed, his face freezing in fear, frantically looking for a place to hide. He was otherwise still, only his head snapped from side to side.

In his frenzy, he also failed to see the human who had gone outside with the dog, and who had followed the excited barks. The dog’s owner had only expected to see a squirrel running away, or a rabbit hauling ass across the yard. She hadn’t expected to see…

… _a tiny human pressed up against the window, head tossing from side to side_?

She shrugged, reached out her index finger, and poked the tiny human in the back of its head.

Whatever it was, it stopped moving.

She got a better look at this creature. It looked like a Christmas elf in a pair of red, head-to-toe pyjamas. The outfit had one of those baby flaps across its butt, and there was a small pink moustache painted across it. A red beanie cap perched on top of a mop of dark hair. Her dog sat town, tail wagging excitedly, alternating between looking up at its master and back again to the tiny, moving creature on the window. 

“Hey. Little dude.”

It’s best to face random small creatures that are clinging to your window head on, right?

The being trembled.

“You can turn around, you know. Let’s see if you have a face.”

SparklePlier slowly turned around. He was petrified at the sight of a full grown human looking down at him. A human. The worst creature to be caught by.

“Are you going to eat me?” He squeaked.

She raised an eyebrow. “I dunno. You tasty?”

He almost crapped in his pink moustache painted pants. “No! No, we taste like shit! Worse than shit! We taste like…damn it, what tastes worse than shit…?!”

" _Should_  I eat you?”

SparklePlier stopped at that question. “It’s what I’ve always been told humans did to us,” he answered truthfully. 

"Oh, guess I should then,” she joked. Her humour was lost on SparklePlier.

“ **PLEASE**  don’t!” He fell to his knees on the windowsill. “I-I’ll do _anything_!”

“Are you a boy, or a girl, or other?”

“I’m a man! Duh!” He gestured at his form. “What has that got to do with anything?”

She eyed him skeptically. “I just really doubt a man that’s about one sixteenth my size could really deliver on doing _anything_.”

SparklePlier stared at her for a moment, the let one barking laugh escape him. “Are you fucking _serious_  right now?”

“Ooof, you’ve got a mouth on you. And for the record, I’m talking to an…I don’t know what. Everything just became really serious.”

He sighed. 

“So…what are you?”

“I’m a frost fairy,” he said, defeated. This was it, he knew it. Forget being seen by a human, but _talking_  to a human? Bring on the bedwetting kids…

“No shit?" 

He crossed his arms. “No shit.” 

The dog at her feet whined. “I have to let my dog in the house. Please don’t go anywhere. I want to talk to you more.”

"Whatever,” he muttered, sitting down heavily on the windowsill. 

She ran the dog to the backdoor, let it into the house, then sprinted back. She grabbed a plastic patio chair that was nearby and sat down in front of the frost fairy. 

"So, how can I hear you? And why is your voice so deep?"

His eyes fairly rolled. "This is what you want to talk about?"

She glared at him. "Oh, sorry, I forgot. Let me go get my 'Talking to Fairies for Dummies' book and go through the Preferred Questions section." She mimed flipping through a book. "Oh wait, this book doesn't exist! Silly me!"

SparklePlier returned the glare. "For you to hear me, and in my true voice, you must have had some experience with a fairy before now."

She nodded, this simple answer seeming to placate her. "Do you have a name?”

"What, you think we call each other ‘frost fairy’?” He shot back.

“Touchy. Fine. My name is Audrey, if this is a balancing act.”

"It’s not that,” he began. “If I tell you my name, you’ll have power over me.”

She pressed her lips together and looked down at her hands. “You’re afraid I’m going to eat you. Knowing your name isn’t getting to me more than _that_ power trip.”

He begrudgingly admitted to himself that she had a point. “SparklePlier.”

Her eyes widened. “Sorry?”

“ _Sparkle. Plier._ ” He enunciated loudly. “My name. Is SparklePlier.”

“That’s…”

“What. Not a good enough fairy name for you?” He mocked. “You were thinking Buttercup or Petal, or some shit like that?”

“Bring it down a notch, _breh_. Fuck, I’ve got me a fairy that swears like a sailor. I feel like I should turn you into a carnival act or a YouTube channel or something.”

He felt a subtle change in the temperature. "The sun is coming up. Well, it’s been nice talking to you, but I have to go and have my status as a frost fairy revoked from me now," he stated, rather matter-of-factly.

“Revoked? Why?”

"Because up until now I’ve only been spotted by animals,” he explained, panicking. “But now, not _only_ have I been spotted by a human, and not _only_ have I been talking to a human, but I’ve told them _who_ I am, and _what_ I am! I don’t even know if I’ll be a fairy after this!”

Audrey looked shocked. “They can revoke your fairy…ness?”

“They can take everything away from me! Fuck!” He slammed a fist against the window, a stunning frost pattern webbing out from the impact.

"Can I help?”

“What?”

“Can I help you out with this?”

He looked back at her. “Why would you even want to?”

“It’s my fault, isn’t it?” Audrey shrugged. “If I hadn’t talked to you, you would have been unnoticed by a human. So if they’re going to take everything away from you, it’s my fault.”

SparklePlier only looked at her, so she continued. 

“Look, I’ve always wanted to believe that supernatural beings exist. I saw something when I was a kid…this tiny, flying being in my room, watching me at night. I thought it was an elf."

"A freaking _elf_?" SparklePlier scoffed.

Audrey continued. "Since then I’ve known, but we humans always want proof.” She moved closer to the window and moved so she was at eye level with him, speaking a little more softly. "You’re proof enough for me. So how can I help you?”

SparklePlier sniffled, and hoped Audrey would figure he was just cold and not overcome. “If you imprisoned me, that would help. Just a couple of nights. Then when I went back, I mean surviving _and_  escaping human capture,” his eyes lit up, “that’d be pretty badass by fairy standards.”

"Done. Consider yourself captured.”  Audrey laughed. “So where can I comfortably imprison you?” She cocked her head to one side, and spoke to no one in particular. “This is, like, the most polite BDSM ever.”

SparklePlier didn’t even bother making any comments about the BDSM; she could tie him up and smack him around a bit if she wanted to at this point. “Do you have anything that’s below freezing in your house?”

She nodded. “A spacious freezer sound like a good jail?”

“Better than going back to the fairy kingdom right now.” Suddenly, he screamed. 

“What? What?! WHAT?!?!!?” Audrey cried out, panicked.

He grasped his arm tightly. “The sun is coming up. Not only scary, but super painful.”

"Let’s get you to your jail then.” Audrey joked. “I can…carry you in my hands?”

SparklePlier nodded. She held out her cupped hands and he climbed into them, she then gingerly made her way back to the house. Once inside she carefully made her way down the staircase, then circled back around to the freezer located under the stairs. A cloud of cold condensation blew back up at her when she forced the lid open with her nose and jaw. Audrey stood up and held her hands over the freezer, SparklePlier leapt from her hands into the frozen 'jail'. 

“Is this good?” She asked.

“As comfortable a prison as one could ask for,” he said in a deeper, richer baritone than Audrey would ever have expected coming from a fairy. “I can’t be out during the day, but after the sun sets, if you want to talk more, I’ll be here.” He smiled, his voice seeming to drop yet another octave. “Come for me.”

Audrey grimaced. “Knock it off with that shit, fairies shouldn’t talk like that,” she admonished, smacking the lid down on him and locking him inside. Hands resting on the freezer top, her head drooped. “What a fucking night.”

 

 

 **MEANWHILE, IN AUDREY’S BACK YARD…**

SparklePlier thought the actions of the night had gone largely unnoticed with the fairy community, as generally the fairies did not pay much, if any, attention to him. Had he read through the notes that the Fairy Commanders released recently, he would know that a certain Dark Fairy had escaped the confines of the Fairy Dungeons. His nemesis.

His brother.

 _His twin_.

He was on the hunt, and now he knew exactly where his prey was; cleverly protected in the human realm where what meager stretch of protection the fairies could afford weaned to nothingness in the daylight. Dealing with a human was of little concern to him, it was why he had been placed in the Fairy Dungeons in the first place. Humans were so... _willing_...to believe that fairies were docile, pleasent creatures. Mischievous, but never truly malicious.

So many had lost their lives, because they _believed_.

He stepped out from behind a tree, his full human height making him visible to anyone looking at him. He found it far more satisfying to disguise himself as a human before playing. It made the reveal of his fairy powers, and more to the point, his _Dark_  Fairy powers, all the more poignant.

Sunlight was little more than a slight inconvince to a Dark Fairy; he didn’t need to seek shelter from ultra violet rays as SparklePlier did. Knowing that he had hours before SparklePlier would be released from his icy cocoon he decided to make his return to Fairy Dungeons, that bastion of misery where they had believed they could hold him.

So much for _beliefs_ , he mused to himself, chin drooping down at the thought.

He sniffed, folding his arms behind his back, holding each elbow with the opposite hand.

In the blink of a human eye, DarklePlier returned to the Dungeons where he was now the assumed Warden. No one, not _any_  of the fairies, wanted to attempt to take back the prison and release the prisoners from his iron rule.

No one _dared_.

His first order of business had been to make the dungeons and prisoners on par with his size as a human; the fairies were even more demoralized that, even with added height and mass, they were still no match for DarklePlier.

He began slowly walking down the hall, arms still behind his back, where the most ruthless prisoners were kept in their impenetrable cells. _Almost_ impenetrable, as was discovered in the case of DarklePlier. Sounds of metal clanging, loud arguing, dull thuds of blows landing, still more screams permeating the air, filling his ears. A strong smell of damp through various lichen and molds tinged the air, with enough blood spilled to cause a permanent taste of salty iron on the tongue

_His home._

"So many choices made," he said, his slow, clipped tones ringing along the hall. Screaming stopped, yelling ceased. As silent as ever a dungeon could be. The only sounds were hoarse whispers of whimperings from some prisoners who knew their guard...

...their _keeper_...

...had returned. 

Torches flickered against the walls, inmates shrunk away from the light, not wanting to chance being seen. He rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt, his black tie already loosened, and unbuttoned the top buttons of the shirt. His black pants were quite damp, especially at the cuffs, and every so often a drop of human blood would dribble down onto the cobblestone walkway. His slow footsteps, human world male dress shoes stepping a slow, deliberate heel-toe, heel-toe on the wet path, could clearly be heard.

"So many choices _still_ to be made."

He stood in the centre of the hall, not raising his voice to be heard, yet knowing all would hear.

"I'm bringing you all some new... _playthings_." A small smirk tugged at the left side of his mouth. "I expect you to extend them your hospitality." He inhaled deeply, his words came out slightly louder, wanting all attention to be paid to these words. "Every reason that found you jailed in this," he glanced upwards at the stalactites that hung down from the cavernous ceiling, the trickle of condensed moisture running down the sides, glistening, " _revolting_ place, every act you committed, you will be rewarded for inflicting on these two."

A slight murmur at the word, 'reward'. DarklePlier was not known for handing out points for good behaviour. It was an intriguing, captivating idea.

A drop of water fell from a stalactite, hitting his cheek. He trailed his index finger after the moisture, wiping the offending water away. He stopped in front of a cell, the last cell at the end of the hall, turning to peer into the tiny, barred view hole. A screech that caused many of the inmates of the dungeon to wail, moan, and scream was emitted from the inmate that occupied the cell DarklePlier now stood in front of. Using the finger that a moment ago wiped the water from his cheek, he now used to lightly trail along the edge of a deep gash in the thick, iron door.

DarklePlier smiled, then knocked lightly three times.

"Especially you, Magpie. I have such... _high hopes_ for you, in dealing with these two."

A booming, echoing slam by Magpie against the cell door gave testament to her enormous size contained within. DarklePlier didn't even blink. One bulging eye glared out of the cell; an eye that was bloodshot, yellow, with black streaks running throughout the eyeball, surrounded by oily black looking feathers. A wet, raspy snuffling and snorting became louder and a stale, sour smell greeted DarklePlier each time she exhaled. 

"My darling," DarklePlier said, tone hushed, his words were for her ears only. His finger was still idly, almost sensually, trailing back and forth along the gash in the cell door as he met Magpie's stare. "I know it's only temporary, but you have never looked more beautiful than you do _right_ now."

Magpie shrieked again, a longer and louder screeching. Renewed soul-curdling wails of pain, blood boiling screams, and booms of yelling that made the ground itself shake. 

DarklePlier turned and walked back up the length of the hallway at a leisurely pace while taking in all of the sounds of the chaos springing up around him once again. 

"It's time we met again, brother dear."


	2. Everything Is Not What It Seems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DarklePlier begins to wage war against his twin brother, SparklePlier, and the human Audrey.

The first sleep Audrey had after 'imprisoning' SparklePlier in her large chest freezer, she dreamed of Sully, her Parsons Jack Russell Terrier, jumping and frolicking in her snow-covered back yard. Sully was so happy, and so cute, and so unlike how she normally was as the dog was nearing sixteen years of age. It was wonderful to see, and as Audrey was not lucid during this dream, she was free to bask in the joy of her dog acting like a puppy.

Audrey was so deeply asleep she did not notice the man in the pinstripe waistcoat perch, light as a feather, at the end of her bed. He freed one of her feet from beneath the covers, tracing his finger back and forth over her anklebone. When she tried to jerk her foot away he grabbed onto it, refusing to let go.

When Audrey ‘freed’ Sparkle the next evening, she didn’t know what to do with him; she was at a loss. SparklePlier didn’t leave her much time to think of things to talk about, he was excited to be out and about in the human world, thrilled that he was ‘captured’ and would have a tale to tell when he got back to the Fairy World. He perched on the edge of a countertop, his legs dangling over the edge. While she prepared dinner for herself, he told her all about life in the Fairy World. How it was not entirely unlike the Human World. Fairies were just tiny humanoids with magical powers. They did not fly; they did not have wings. They were able to transport themselves by thought alone. Sparkle had asked, quite consistently, why they couldn’t live alongside the humans, use their powers to help them with their problems, to make life easier and more ‘magical’. Share their knowledge and powers. Become their friends.

(SparklePlier did not have many friends; he was always looking out for the next person who might be a companion to share in fun, games, and adventures. However, as soon as they found out who he was, and whom he was related to…)

Fairies stayed away from him. They tolerated him, but did not want to risk becoming too close to him. When he asked his questions about the humans, he was promptly shut down with “Stop asking questions. Humans are beasts. Why would you want to live with them? Besides, it has always been this way and we are not changing things now.”

“Because we’ve always done things this way,” isn’t only a dangerous phrase for humans…

Audrey called in sick to work, said she had the flu, and that she’d check back in a few days. The store she worked at said not to worry, there were always people competing for hours at the store, her shifts would not go uncovered. Sparkle was far more interesting than her job. She could afford to miss a couple of days, besides; she had some vacation pay she could request... It would be fine.

This wasn’t crazy at all. It wasn’t. This was a _Fairy._. This was proof. The proof she’d always hoped and dreamed she would find.

The second sleep she got was much the same as the first, dreams of Sully running back and forth across the snowy yard, jumping up and chomping down on snowflakes. This time, however, Sully started to look…strange. Her eyes were too big for a few seconds. Her teeth, overgrown and sharp. Audrey awoke with a feeling of dread pressing down on her chest.

The man in the pinstripe waistcoat peered at her from her closet. He smirked, and then soundlessly disappeared from sight.

SparklePlier tried bites of the human food Audrey made, and while it was very different from the food he usually ate it wasn’t distasteful and did not make him sick. He even asked for seconds.

Audrey noted that Sparkle had grown in size overnight. She wondered if it was because of his eating the human food, or if gravity worked differently in the Fairy World. Sparkle thought it might be because of the constant temperature in the freezer, or because he’d been away from for Fairy World for so long. Audrey asked if she should ‘release’ him, so he could go home. Sparkle asked for one more night, if anything went truly wrong, he would leave as soon as the sun went down that evening.

The discussed so much, Audrey wanted to know everything about his life in the Fairy World, Sparkle was very interested in humans and the human world. They shared stories, had some great laughs. It was some of the most fun she’d had in her own house. 

Audrey considered Sparkle a friend. She didn’t have many friends, a few good ones she saw every so often, but most people escaped the confines of the small town they’d grown up in as soon as was humanly possible. There had been a few opportunities for Audrey to leave herself, but fear of the unknown had always stopped her. Now she lived in her childhood home, with her dog, her internet connection, her movies, and her video games. 

Why bother trying to have a life of your own when you can live actively through others?

She made him hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. She made tiny cookies, big enough for only one chocolate chip. She felt silly; he thought they were awesome.

Audrey grew sadder as daybreak approached. Three nights had been the unspoken deal. She knew Sparkle needed to go home, he obviously couldn’t live in her freezer forever.

SparklePlier went back into the freezer, to once more hide from the sunlight. “Maybe I could stay for another night…?” he trailed. Audrey nodded sadly, and then closed the lid. She knew he needed to go back to the Fairy World; he was growing more and more each day. If he stayed much longer he would be the size of a human. Audrey bit her lip. He was her friend, but she couldn’t keep him around just for hew own sake. She had to take him and his well-being into consideration.

She washed the dishes she had made a mess of in her dinner preparations and baking spree. She took Sully out for her evening ‘piddle’, as she referred to it. She turned out the lights, washed her face and brushed her teeth. Calling for Sully, she lifted the dog onto the bed, something she never allowed. Audrey needed the comfort of her dog tonight.

The dreams she had on this night, the third night, were not dreams at all. They were not nightmares, not exactly. They were…something in between. 

The man in the pinstripe waistcoat didn’t even bother keeping out of sight until Audrey was fully asleep – he seemed to enjoy flaunting the fact that he was in her room, watching her as she drifted off. She was not completely awake, not completely asleep, when she had the feeling she needed to wake up, and NOW. Being too far into sleep, she was paralyzed, and unable to obey her brain. Into sleep, she fell…

Darkle leaned over and petted Sully, scratching her the way she liked to be scratched behind her ear.

Audrey was in her backyard, but it wasn’t her backyard. Her backyard was not a vast, desolate landscape. There were trees, but they were tall, stretching towards the sky, devoid of leaves, branches twisted, broken and akimbo. There was snow on the ground, but it was old snow, snow that had melted and re-frozen a few times, grey and black patches of dirt marring the once pristine visage.

Some of the snow had been fashioned into chest high walls...

Audrey in her dream state was not lucid, she accepted everything as it was, everything at face value.

So when Sully…or what she knew to be Sully, even if her dog was now unrecognizable…stormed into the ‘backyard’, the fear at the creature was quickly replaced with a burst of adrenaline. She quickly looked for something, anything, to destroy this hell-spawned entity with.

‘Sully’ was no longer her adorable, loving snausage. ‘Sully’ was an oversized ten feet tall. Every part of her was bulging, straining at the stretched skin over her elongated frame. Her heart rate could be seen pulsating in her veins. And her face…

Her _face_ …

One eye was blown up, larger than normal, but not to a grotesque degree. It just appeared oversized, nothing too scary about that. But her other eye…this was a protuberance in every sense of the word. How it remained held in any way by her eye socket was a marvel. It did not seem to be attached to anything inside the eye, optic nerve or otherwise, so it rolled and wheeled around at the slightest provocation. The lids did not close over this eye, so the only source of moisture was for her to continuously lick the eyeball.

Sully still jumped and pranced around like a puppy, a normally cute event. Not so when her legs were like thick tree stumps...

She bared her teeth; slobber dripping down, strands of drool flung about as she shook her head. She howled into the silent night, her call reverberating into the stillness, shaking the ground.

Audrey found what she was looking for, a gun. Not just any gun, a large, blasting cannon of death. It absorbed whatever attack the aggressor you were battling threw at you, converted it into power and ammunition of its own.

It was a perfect weapon, especially when you had no emotional connection to who or what you were locked in combat with.

Audrey allowed the beast to come at her, the canine behemoth digging her claws into the frozen earth, gaining enough traction to charge. She held up her weapon, pressing the button that would absorb every shred of energy the monster of a dog was aiming at her. When she had enough, she shot, a blast piercing into Sully. It was not enough to destroy her, it would take a lot more than that, but it was enough to tear a heartbreaking, pain-filled yowl from Sully.

Even as a beast, she looked, and sounded, wounded and heartbroken.

Audrey did not blink – she did not care – and lined up the dog in her sights, ready to deliver another few shots, to end this.

 

DarklePlier appeared next to the freezer where SparklePlier was happily reposing. ‘Silly Sparkle,’ he tutted to himself, shaking his head. ‘You should have known better.’ He reached into his back pants pocket and extracted a very thin wand, and waved it over the freezer. The lid opened, and Sparkle – who was happily curled up in his sleep – was levitated into the next room and was placed gently on the ground.

“More to the point,” Darkle said out loud, “you should have known _me_ better.”

Sparkle twitched and rolled over, and blinked as he awoke. “Audrey?” he smiled.

Darkle smiled, but it failed to hit his eyes, there was nothing warm or pleasant about it. “Not quite.”

A flick of the wand, and SparklePlier disappeared. DarklePlier looked around, as if surprised that Sparkle was no longer in sight. “Now. Wherever did he get to?”

Darkle snickered, flicked the wand a second time, and he himself vanished.

 

 

Sully lay writhing in agony, blast holes shot into her. Blood spilled on the ground. Audrey closed the gap between them, her weapon sucking up as much negative energy as it could, so she could blow the creatures head clean off.

“Audrey!”

Her head barely moved an inch in response. “SparklePlier? The hell are you doing here?”

“You have to stop!”

“Bullshit. This doggy needs putting down.” She cocked her gun, lining up the yowling, whimpering dog in her sights.

“It’s _real_ , Audrey!”

She finally tore her gaze away from the Sully-beast, looking at Sparkle incredulously, “Of course it’s real. And I’m _really_ going to deal with this.” She looked at a sensor on her gun, noting that the dog was not giving off much negative energy anymore. “As soon as this piece of shit starts hating on me again,” she muttered.

Darkle appeared next to Sparkle. “Did you really not wonder why you’re on eye level with her, brother?”

Sparkle looked down at himself. He was actually taller than Audrey now, his height exactly mirroring that of Darkle’s. His clothes had changed too; gone was the red suit of the Frost Fairy, Human World clothes had replaced them. He didn't know exactly what he was wearing but the shoes were black, the pants were a faded blue colour, and the shirt had a red and black pattern on it. “What are you doing?” He sputtered.

DarklePlier's eye twitched, and a pair of glasses appeared on Sparkle’s face, again a perfect replica of those Darkle wore. “You’ll need those later,” he mused. “And as for what I’m doing, I’m doing as I have always done.”

Sparkle whipped around, trying to spot his brother. Darkle stood behind Audrey, and unbeknownst to her stroked a bit of her hair. Upon seeing Darkle, Sparkle threw his hands out in front of him, summoning his magic. Sadly, none would come to him.

DarklePlier shook his head. “It’s no _fun_ if we’re all on a level playing field,” he stated. “And speaking of an uneven playing field, I guess it’s time this dream of Audrey’s became a little more... _lucid_.”

Sparkle charged towards Darkle and Audrey.

With one turn of his wrist, DarklePlier made Audrey become lucid in her dream, and he removed himself. Audrey crumpled to the ground, dizziness flooding over her.

SparklePlier ran to Audrey but fell short of her, not used to his newer, longer legs, and slid in the snow on his knees. He crawled to Audrey, who was trying to stand up. Sparkle threw his arms around her, attempting to keep her still.

“What the hell is going on?!” Audrey screamed.

“I don’t know,” Sparkle answered honestly. “My brother, Darkle…but that doesn’t matter-”

“What am I doing here? This is a dream!”

Sparkle’s snowy hands flew to either side of Audrey’s face, and held it there. “You need to wake up. You need to wake up right now!”

Audrey tried to pull away from Sparkle, to remove his hands from her face, to run. Sparkle in his new form was stronger than she was. He spoke rapidly, words tumbling out, “Don’t look around, don’t run away, just look right here.” He pulled her face to his, their noses were almost touching. He was in a panic. “Do not look away. You need to wake up.”

“Why am I in a field? Why are you huge? Why am I holding a gun?!”

A whimper interrupted her tirade. Audrey recognized it instantly.

“That sounded like Sully.”

Sparkle's hands on her face grew tighter. His eyes darted to look over her head, then shut quickly, trying to blot the sight from his field of vision.

“Please don’t look. Wake up, Audrey. Please don’t look away from me. Don’t look.”

Another heartbreaking sound.

Audrey’s eyes grew wide. Her sudden burst of adrenaline was no match for Sparkle’s grip on her, and she tore away from him. Righted herself.

And came face to face with the carnage she had wrought.

Sully was huge. Grotesque. Beastly. Not her dog anymore, not really.

But she was _still_ her Sully.

Huge chunks of her were missing. She was bleeding out into the snow. Her gasps were ragged and gurgling. She tried to move her legs, to get her paws to grip onto something, but to no avail. Her eyes rolled in pain, seeking solace.

Sully was dying.

Audrey’s eyes grew wide with horror. She slowly looked down at the gun in her hands. Dropped it.

SparklePlier ran up behind her, speaking rapidly in her ear as her eyes filled with tears. “You did not do this, you did NOT do this, this is Darkle’s fault, it’s HIS fault-“

“You said this was real.”

Sparkle shut up.

Audrey turned around to face Sparkle. “You said this was real,” she repeated. “Is that Sully?”

Sparkle couldn’t answer. Audrey repeated her question, more forcefully.

“Is. That. Sully?"

SparklePlier nodded.

Audrey tore towards her dog, slipping in the icy snow. She ran to the top of Sully’s head, throwing her arms as widely as she could.

“Oh, puppy! No, Puppy! Sully I’m so sorry! Shit, puppy! Oh god, Sully!”

Sparkle ran up next to her. 

“Sparkle!” Audrey whipped around, one hand still on Sully. “You can heal her! You have magic!”

His eyes filled with pain. “I can’t.”

“No! No,” Audrey wiped tears off her face. “You can! You have magic!”

Sparkle placed a hand on Audrey’s shoulder. “DarklePlier took my magic away.”

Audrey's eyes narrowed. "Who the fuck is DarklePlier?"

Another keening whimper emitted from Sully.

“Stay with her,” Audrey commanded.

Sparkle nodded. Audrey began to walk away.

Back to where she had been standing before.

She picked up the huge, hulking, blasting gun.

And proceeded to walk back to where Sully and Sparkle were.

SparklePlier left Sully. “What are you doing?”

“I did this to her,” the said, a shuddering sob escaping her. “So now I have to set her free.”

“Audrey, don’t. We can figure this out.” Sparkle said slowly. “We can save Sully.”

Another tear fell from Audrey’s eyes. “I’ve had a few lucid dreams in my time. And one thing has always held true.” She held the gun out to Sparkle. “When I die, I wake up.”

Sparkle refused to take the gun from her. “But this is real, Audrey.”

She dropped the gun on the ground in front of SparklePlier. “If it’s real, and I _really_ did this to my dog? Then I deserve to die.”

Audrey walked over to Sully, and nuzzled her head. Sully tried so hard to lick Audrey, but did not have the energy. “Aim the gun at me, absorb the negative energy that I'm aiming at myself. Then fire.”

“I’m not a killer,” SparklePlier began.

Audrey looked at Sully, eyes full of love, and pain. “Neither am I.”

Sparkle picked up the gun.

“It’ll all be over soon, puppy. I promise.” Audrey whispered.

He locked the cannon on Audrey, and flicked the switch. The amount of negative energy needed to arm to gun was flowing off Audrey in waves so strong, the gun was ready in no time.

“I’ll see you when you wake up,” SparklePlier choked out.

“Thank you, Sparkle.” She smiled, burying her face into Sully’s fur.

Sparkle aimed…

…shot….

…and found himself, with Audrey, on the damp, cobbled stone floor of a dungeon.

"Well, well, well," DarklePlier drawled. "My big brother, finally becoming a man. Congratulations."

SparklePlier shook Audrey gently, trying to wake her up, ignoring Darkle's words as best he could.

"She's not dead," Darkle confirmed. "A little unconsciousness never hurt anybody."

"What about Sully," Sparkle questioned angrily. "How could you _do_ that?"

"The dog is fine. She's here with me. Living off the fat of the land, you could say."

Sparkle gently arranged Audrey's unconscious form on the floor, then sprang up to face his brother. "What the fuck is going on here?!"

"I needed to show you something."

"Show me what?" spat Sparkle.

"That good and bad are all a matter of opinion. The situations we find ourselves in, and how we react to them, are subjective. How others interpret our actions, _that_ is the true measure of right and wrong."

Sparkle was stunned. "You did all of that...Audrey's horrible dream about Sully...to show me that right and wrong are subjective? Are you out of your _fucking_ mind?!"

DarklePlier nodded. "That is the general consensus, yes."

"You're not telling me everything," Sparkle noted, narrowing his eyes. "What is really going on?"

"What's going on is that you and your human are inside of the Fairy Dungeons. You both will traverse these cells until I am satisfied."

"Satisfied?"

Darkle smirked, "Until the entertainment value has been diminished."

"What if we just sit here, do nothing? Some 'entertainment value' you'll have then."

"If you play my game," Darkle explained, "I'll let you both go. The human can return to her house with her dog, you get your powers back and can return to the Fairy World."

"Why? Why do this at all?"

The veneer of strained politeness disappeared instantly from Darkle's demeanour. DarklePlier slammed SparklePlier against the cell wall, moisture seeped into Sparkle's clothes as his body jarred from the impact. His head lolled, and his perceptions grew fuzzy for a few seconds.

"Because I _can_ ," DarklePlier seethed, spittle landing on Sparkle's face. "Because I _choose_ to. I don't _need_ a reason!"

"I will...stop you," SparklePlier said brokenly, his hands trying to push Darkle's arm away from where it was pressing down on his neck.

DarklePlier backed away a step, and straightened his waistcoat. "I want you to."

And he was gone.

Sparkle fell to the ground, pain from his impact with the wall, how tightly Darkle had been gripping him, and the knowledge that he and Audrey were being forced to wander the Fairy Dungeons for Darkle's entertainment were weighing heavily on him. 

Audrey groaned, and rolled over. She held a hand up to her head.

"Sparkle...Plier?" She slurred.

He inched his way over to her. 

How the hell was he going to explain _this_?

**Author's Note:**

> (I'm doing so much voice work in the coming months, I'm thinking of putting together an audio of this story. Maybe somehow for charity. That'd be cool. Of course, y'know, Mark, if you ever read this, let me know... ROFL! Ahh, I dream big.)
> 
> The next chapters are pulling on themes and horror/gore content from games like Amnesia, Outlast, The Evil Within, my extensive horror film and book knowledge, whatever else I start watching while writing this...plus my own creepily creative head. Fair warning that it is going to get dark, scary, and gruesome in later chapters. Yay? =) 
> 
> Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought!


End file.
